Even if you didn’t already know that author Ed Klein has been thoroughly discredited, you’d have plenty of reasons to doubt his claim to have inside information about Hillary Clinton’s personal medical records.

Last summer he published a bombshell report that Hillary Clinton, while secretary of state, had been briefed on the Benghazi mortar attack before the attack actually happened. He had exclusive details about a nasty conversation Clinton had about Obama (“You can’t trust that motherfucker”) while totally bombed on fine wines served to her by a nonexistent French restaurateur. And just a few days ago he dropped a major campaign 2016 exclusive: Barack Obama has a secret plan to force Joe Biden to run for president with a black running mate.

All of these hot scoops are based on anonymous “sources” who always happen to be present when the most powerful people in the country cook up their various schemes and conspiracies, and who then provide verbatim details of those highly scandalous conversations exclusively to Ed Klein.

That kind of journalism was on view when Klein appeared on Hannity last night. Not surprisingly, Hannity never questioned any of the unlikely scenarios behind Klein’s reporting.

After claiming to have had some inside info about animosity between President Obama and Hillary Clinton over the Department of Justice investigation into her email server, Klein went on to claim he was privy to Clinton’s private medical information. Rather than question who, that would have had access to Clinton’s records and medical condition, would have divulged such information to a partisan like Klein, Hannity helped validate Klein’s implausbile “scoop.”

KLEIN: I’ve interviewed a number of people who were close to the doctors who have actually investigated this and have looked at her x-rays and gotten her medical records and they tell me that she has an intrinsic attitude toward forming blood clots, especially in her brain, between her brain and her skull and that this can be very dangerous. On the campaign trail, she has had dizzy spells…

HANNITY (interrupting): When she was sick, heading into that Christmas holiday, if I remember correctly, I was told by people that were reading the public reports, published reports, that their interpretation, medical professionals that I know, that they interpreted it that she had a TIA or what is known as a mini stroke. Very dangerous condition. Usually you would end up on blood thinners, maybe even for the rest of your life. Something like Coumadin or something like that.

KLEIN: That’s what she’s on right now.

HANNITY: You know for a fact?

KLEIN: For a fact.

Notice that Klein didn't say he had interviewed people close to doctors who had actually treated Clinton, just people who were close to the doctors who "have actually investigated" her condition. Who's that? Dr. Ben Carson? A Karl Rove operative? And how on earth would an "investigating" doctor get his or her hands on Clinton's confidential medical information which, I imagine, would be closely guarded? Hannity, didn't ask.

Klein also claimed to have reached his tentacles into the private discussions between Hillary and Bill Clinton about her condition.

KLEIN: Bill Clinton had urged her to travel with her personal physician so that he can keep an eye on her. …He’s afraid that she’s going to literally either faint, stumble, fall down, show a tremendous amount of weakness in front of the cameras. He wants the doctor to be there to make sure that she’s OK to go out in public.

And yet, Mrs. Clinton has done none of those things, which did not seem to occur to Hannity. Instead, he went on to revive his desperatelyhoped-for scandal about Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein that even Bill O’Reilly debunked.

Ironically, earlier in the interview, Klein just as dubiously claimed that Clinton had said to Obama about the DOJ investigation, “I want you to call off your f***ing dogs.”

“Wow,” Hannity said. “You don’t talk like that to a president in the Oval Office.”

“You certainly don’t,” Klein agreed.

But it’s perfectly OK to talk like that about a president. Not long afterward, Klein said, “These two families are almost like Mafia families,” meaning the Obamas and the Clintons.

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For starters, Klein might want to address rumors of his own health. He’s looking awfully sickly in these images—as Grandpa might’ve said on “The Munsters,” “I’ve seen healthier looking faces on folks laid out on a mortuary slab.”

Secondly, I just want to know who I’d need to contact over Klein’s apparent receipt of ILLEGAL medical materials. ALL medical information is supposed to be deemed “private” and it’s a FEDERAL crime (under HIPAA) to disclose ANY medical information without the patient’s FULLANDKNOWING consent. Whoever his “sources” are (and that is pretending he actually has real sources, beyond the voices in his head) have committed a crime that has NO “whistleblower” protections and Klein is an accessory (and, since he passed it along to Hannutty, Seannie-poo is as well).

I suppose it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Fox News is so terrified of Hillary Clinton that they’re dredging up Ed Klein again. Given how unreliable his statements are, I have to wonder if the polling numbers that Roger Ailes sees are actually even worse for the GOP than he’s admitting publicly.